Bhopal,
Jan 17
School is a happy proposition now for many children in Madhya
Pradesh. No longer do they have to stay with parched throats or go
without using toilets the whole day. In Dhar district, where many
children - particularly girls - had stopped going to school for want
of drinking water and sanitation facilities, Unicef has helped
install 'play pumps' in educational institutions.
The 'play pump' is a children's merry-go-round that pumps out clean,
safe drinking water from a deep borehole every time it is spun.
"Since cavorting on a roundabout has always been fun for children,
they enjoy doing it and clean borehole water is pumped into water
storage tanks," explained Unicef communications officer Anil Gulati.
So Unicef, which has helped the district administration provide the
play pumps, has not only solved the water problem but also brought
in a means of entertainment for schoolchildren.
"Earlier I used to run away from school for want of water and
bathrooms, but now I don't feel like going back home because we have
this facility there and can play with it as well," said Kavita, a
tribal girl studying in Class 8.
The children earlier used to go without drinking water during the
day, with 90 percent of schools in Dhar having no potable water or
sanitation facilities.
"The play pumps project was started on an experimental basis in
March 2005. Since then several such pumps have been installed in
districts like Dhar, Jhabua, Vidisha and Guna. There are plans to
provide 40 such pumps in different parts of the state," said Samuel
Godfrey, a Unicef official.
The water pumped into tanks - the process doesn't require
electricity - is distributed among schools and communities in the
area.
The device is thus a boon not only for schoolchildren but also for
the people living in the surroundings, mainly women who have the
responsibility of collecting water.
"Each morning the women used to set off to the nearest borehole to
collect water. They used leaky and often contaminated hand-pumps to
collect water and then carry it all back. It was exhausting and
time-consuming work. Now they can spend the same time at home
looking after their kids and teaching them," Gulati said.
The groundwater level in these districts is too low and whatever
little water is available is highly contaminated with fluoride.
The water table has fallen from an average of 10 metres to 80 metres.
This has led to higher concentration of contaminants like fluoride,
arsenic and iron in groundwater. A total of 324 villages are
affected with this problem in tribal-dominated Dhar district alone.
Unicef and the state's Public Health Engineering Department are
promoting projects on water reuse, water safety and sanitation in 22
schools of Dhar and Jhabua.
Children participating in a convention on water security and
sanitation here this week expressed their happiness by presenting
the very songs they sing while playing with the pumps in their
schools in Dhar.
They also performed plays on different themes, including re-using
water, water safety, rainwater harvesting and sanitation.
"Such projects, aimed at promoting recycling of grey water for its
reuse in improving sanitation, are being implemented in the tribal
schools of Dhar. These also promote rain water harvesting and
increase the focus on sanitation," said Unicef state representative
Hamid El Bashir.
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